Data from: Molecular phylogeny of the burying beetles (Coleoptera: Silphidae: Nicrophorinae)

Burying beetles (Silphidae: Nicrophorus) are well-known for their monopolization of small vertebrate carcasses in subterranean crypts and complex biparental care behaviors. They have been the focus of intense behavioral, ecological, and conservation research since the 1980s yet no thorough phylogenetic estimate for the group exists. Herein, we infer relationships, test past hypotheses of relationships, and test biogeographic scenarios among 55 of the subfamily Nicrophorinae’s currently valid and extant 72 species. Two mitochondrial genes, COI and COII, and two nuclear genes, the D2 region of 28S, and the protein coding gene CAD, provided 3,971 nucleotides for 58 nicrophorine and 5 outgroup specimens. Ten partitions, with each modeled by GTR + I + G, were used for a 100 M generation MrBayes analysis and maximum likelihood bootstrapping with Garli. The inferred Bayesian phylogeny was mostly well-resolved with only three weak branches of biogeographic relevance. The common ancestor of the subfamily and of the genus Nicrophorus was reconstructed as Old World with four separate transitions to the New World and four reverse colonizations of the Old World from the New. Divergence dating from analysis with BEAST indicate the genus Nicrophorus originated in the Cretaceous, 127–99 Ma. Most prior, pre-cladistic hypotheses of relationships were strongly rejected while most modern hypotheses were largely congruent with monophyletic groups in our estimated phylogeny. Our results reject a recent hypothesis that Nicrophorus morio Gebler, 1817 (NEW STATUS as valid species) is a subspecies of N. germanicus (L., 1758). Two subgenera of Nicrophorus are recognized: NecroxenusSemenov-Tian-Shanskij, 1933, and NicrophorusFabricius, 1775.

葬甲科（Silphidae）丽葬甲属（Nicrophorus）昆虫，以其对地下隐蔽生境中小体型脊椎动物尸体的独占行为与复杂的双亲抚育行为而广为人知。自20世纪80年代起，该类群便成为行为学、生态学及保护生物学领域的重点研究对象，但目前尚无针对该类群的全面系统发育推断研究。在此，我们对丽葬甲亚科（Nicrophorinae）当前有效且现存的72个物种中的55个展开了系统发育关系推断、既往亲缘关系假说验证以及生物地理情景分析。本研究选取两个线粒体基因COI、COII，以及两个核基因——28S rRNA的D2区与蛋白编码基因CAD，为58个丽葬甲亚科物种及5个外类群标本获取了共计3971个核苷酸位点。我们采用10个分区模型（每个模型均以GTR + I + G进行参数设置），通过MrBayes完成了100万代的贝叶斯分析，并利用Garli开展最大似然法自举检验。推断得到的贝叶斯系统发育树整体分辨率良好，仅存在3个与生物地理相关的弱支持分支。该亚科及丽葬甲属（Nicrophorus）的共同祖先被重建为起源于旧世界，期间发生了四次独立的新大陆殖民事件，以及四次从新大陆返回旧世界的反向定殖事件。基于BEAST分析的分化时间估算结果显示，丽葬甲属起源于白垩纪，时间跨度为127~99 Ma（百万年前）。绝大多数早期分支分类学前的亲缘关系假说均被强烈否定，而多数现代亲缘假说则与本研究推断的系统发育树中的单系类群基本一致。本研究结果否定了近期提出的一项假说：即1817年Gebler发表的Nicrophorus morio（新定为有效物种）为N. germanicus（Linnaeus, 1758）的亚种。本研究认可丽葬甲属下设两个亚属：Necroxenus Semenov-Tian-Shanskij, 1933与Nicrophorus Fabricius, 1775。